BSG

Chief Tyrol promises, but can he deliver? As the initial payment, he offers the following interrupts:

Restore Order 4
Scientific Research 5

Blue is now positive for this check. In addition, the skill check abilities of 0-value and Treachery cards will have no effect within the check! A bold move there. Chief Tyrol: leader of men. Control freak. Furry.

Everyone else passes on interrupts. The check begins:

An Offer of Peace: 12 (6) YG(B)

Destiny: 2 cards
Zarek:
Kat:
Chief:
Romo: (max 1 card)

Zarek is first.

[DnD 5th ed commentary]

Yeah, I'm digging the hell out the ruleset so far. Even the stuff I'm not as hep on looks like it'll be easy to sub out. I ran my crew through the Caves of Chaos with various iterations of the playtest rules, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with what they brought out of the test.

I've been running a mid-high range Pathfinder game for the last few months, and as much fun as it is, I'm finding myself growing less and less fond of the fiddly numbers-wankery and infinite rules-cruft. I'm hoping this will prove a pleasant alternative.

BSG

First plays:

An Offer of Peace: 12 (6) YG(B)

Destiny: 2 cards
Zarek: 1 card
Kat: 4 cards
Chief:
Romo: (COs received)

Chief is up next.

D&D 5E

That's pretty much my thoughts, Joe. I've got a 10th level (soon to be 11th level) Pathfinder game going right now and I've been feeling the pangs of nostalgia for the simplicity (such as it was) of the 2nd Ed days lately. This system definitely seems like it might scratch that itch without having to subject myself to THAC0 and "Wait, is high or low good on this roll?" I could definitely see myself switching back and forth between running 5E and Pathfinder, depending on what I'm in the mood for.

I actually played 4E for about a year when it first came out, and it was fun, but it didn't feel like D&D to me. It felt like a completely different game that happened to use some of the same terminology. I quite happily switched to Pathfinder when it was time to sit in the DM chair again, because it felt like a logical improvement on 3.5 (even if I house-ruled it a bit to my liking.)

5E manages to, so far, feel like D&D and harken back to some of that old school 1E/2E/BECMI feel while adding some modern twists. I'm liking the hybrid Vancian/Spontaneous casting of the wizard and cleric and the fact that instead of having multiple spells that basically do the same thing, but better, at each level you can just cast the spell at a higher level for a better effect. I like the idea that saves are tied to each of the 6 ability scores to discourage dump-stating (though oddly I haven't seen anything yet that doesn't target the 3e trio of Con, Dex and Wisdom). I like the simplicity of the unified "Proficiency Bonus" that keeps everything easy to remember and insures that while you're good at what you want to be good at, you aren't completely useless at everything else.

As far as the feel thing goes, though, I will be interested to see how the bounded accuracy idea works in practice at the higher levels. Hopefully high-level threats have more going for them than simply being giant bags of hit points.

I'm not as keen on the unnecessary terminology changes. Okay, so Swift Actions are now Bonus Actions and Immediate Actions are now Reactions and Healing Surges are now Hit Dice. The last one is especially annoying, since Hit Dice has had a specific different meaning in all the previous versions of the game. Way to be needlessly confusing.

Of course, all this is based on reading the rules. I'm sure I'll likely have a different view on things (good and bad) if/when I get a chance to actually take the system for a test drive.

BSG

I have everyone's play:

An Offer of Peace: 12 (6) YG(B)

Destiny: 2 cards
Zarek: 1 card
Kat: 4 cards
Chief: 4 cards
Romo: 1 card

That's a lot of cards. Will it be enough? Cards played:

Consolidate Power 1
Major Victory 1
Executive Order 2
Repair 2
Calculations 4
Full Throttle 1
Bait 0
Bait 0
Bait 0
Bait 0
Dradis Contact 0
Violent Outbursts 4

Tally: 10 - 5 = 5. Fail! The crew misses the partial pass by just 1. Morale falls to 2! Destiny also receives two more Treachery cards. It's the Treacherousest!

There was plenty of Treachery in this check too, but thanks to the RO-4, none of it has any effect. That concludes Romo's turn. Zarek's cards are going out. Pradmiral Zarek, when you're ready, please post your move and action.

BSG

End-of-turn summary:

Round 11.3 - Romo

Locations and Hands
Kat: Sector 5; 4 cards, 0 miracle tokens, 1 mutiny card
Chief: Sickbay; 2 cards, 1 miracle token, 2 mutiny cards
Romo: Caprica; 4 cards, 0 miracle tokens, 0 mutiny cards
Zarek: Weapons Control; 2 cards, 1 miracle token, 1 mutiny card

Main Board Sectors
Sector 1: 2 Raiders, 1 Heavy Raider
Sector 2: Empty
Sector 3: 1 Basestar, 3 Raiders, 2 Heavy Raiders, Civilian F
Sector 4: Empty
Sector 5: 2 Raiders, 1 RSV, Civilians C H, Kat
Sector 6: 3 Raiders, 1 RSV, Civilian D

Resources
Fuel: 3
Food: 6
Morale: 2
Population: 5

Viper Reserves: 0
Damaged Vipers: 5
Raptors: 4
Assault Raptors: 0
Boarding Party: 0

Other
Nukes: 1
Jump Track: 0 (Red)
Distance Travelled: 10
Galactica Damage: Colonial One

BSG (Romo)

We will pass this.

Not so much, Chief.

Not.

So.

Much.

BSG ("Chief" Galen Tyrol)

I tried.

BSG(Pradmiral Despair)

WHAT

THE

HELL

OK, I'm thinking we need to thin out the Raiders. bt, which one lets me take out multiple Raiders at once? Is it CIC or Main Batteries?

BSG (Kat)

Morale is dangerously low.